Holiday Entitlement: How To Get 55 Days Off Out Of Your Annual Leave This Year

Some maths wizards over at lifestyle magazine The Debrief, have put some serious thought into when you should take your holidays this year.

They have calculated that with your statutory entitlement of 28 days, and taking into account 3 days being taken off for bank holidays, you could have 55 days of holiday this year. In their calculations this equates to: one 16-day holiday, one 12-day holiday and three 9-day holidays. Sounds good to us.

As you need to start soon, you might want to just copy and paste this into an email to your boss right now - before any of your dastardly colleagues catch up with your master plan.

However, even if you can't take advantage of this double-holiday-days-bonus, we want to make sure you know your rights regarding holiday entitlement. So today at Unlock the Law, we take a look at the rules relating to holiday entitlement.

How much holiday am I entitled to?

Nearly all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday each year. This is called statutory leave entitlement or annual leave, and an employer may choose to include bank holidays as part of this entitlement.

Self-employed workers are not entitled to annual leave.

How is leave entitlement calculated?

In order to calculate how many days you are entitled to, the number of days you work per week is multiplied by 5.6 weeks.

This means that workers who work a 5-day week must receive 28 days' paid annual leave per year.

Part-time workers are also entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, however this will equate to fewer actual holidays days than a full-time worker would get.

For example, a part-time worker who works 3 days per week would get 3 x 5.6 days of holiday per year which is 16.8 days of annual paid leave.

What if I work shifts, only at term-time or irregular hours?

If you work shifts or other irregular hours your holiday entitlement will be calculated based on the number of hours you have worked. You can calculate this if you know how many hours you have worked, or speak to your employer to find out how much holiday you are entitled to.

If I work more than 5 days a week, am I entitled to more leave?

Statutory paid holiday entitlement is limited to 28 days. This means that those working more than 5 days a week are not entitled to more statutory paid holiday.

Can my employer offer extra leave?

Employers may choose to offer more than the legal minimum paid leave, however the rules that apply to statutory leave do not need to be applied to extra leave. For example, extra leave may only be given when a worker has been in employment for a certain amount of time.

Generally, the notice period required for taking leave is at least twice as long as the amount of leave you want to take. For example, you would need to give two weeks notice for one week of leave. This will be the case unless there are different requirements stated in your contract.

Can my employer refuse to let me take time off?

Your employer may refuse your request for leave, but they must give you as much notice as the amount of leave requested. So, if you request 1 week of leave, they must give you at least 1 week of notice that your request has been refused.

Although, your employer can refuse to let you take leave at a certain time, they cannot refuse to let you take leave at all.

Your employer may also

Tell you to take leave, for example at bank holidays or Christmas

Restrict when leave can be taken. For example, at certain busy periods